Author Bio:
E. Raymond Tatten is a life-long, New England Yankee living in the middle of beautiful apple country of Central Massachusetts.
His essays and articles have appeared in local publications, including "The Worcester Telegram, The Harvard Post, The Bolton Independent, The Landmark" and "Sterling Meetinghouse News," along with "MUSED Bella Online Literary Review" and "Adelaide Literary Magazine."
Tatten’s newest work includes an historical fiction account of a sixteen-year-old boy's capture by Indians in 1705, along with his own historical narrative as a nine-year-old living on a remote farm in Central Massachusetts.
Raymond shares a home on a country road in Sterling, Massachusetts with his wife Linda, daughter KT and a three-pound female Yorkie named Dani Dog.
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Editorial Review:
''Sawyer's Regret” is a fine tale indeed on several levels. A classic 'coming of age' and powerfully moving love story with something for everyone. It is an account of the difficult life of the early North American colonists of what is now the north eastern seaboard of the United States in the very early seventeenth century when the Colonies were in their infancy and 'Queen Anne's War', an adjunct of the further flung War of the Spanish Succession was raging in Florida, in the Carolinas and Georgia and especially in the area of New England and 'New France'- in Canada and Newfoundland. New England was especially hard hit in series of raids and counter raids conducted by the English and the French and their Indian allies, the Confederation of the Iroquois and the Wabanaki respectively. 'Queen Anne's War' raged between 1701 and 1713 with the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. In actuality it was an extension of previous hostilities between the English and the French and the Spanish and the precursor of more hostilities lasting into the mid 1760's. The settlements of New England experienced more than their fair share of raid and counter raid. An attack on the settlement of Deerfield in 1704, for example, resulted in the deaths of fifty one colonists and with one hundred and eleven taken prisoner. This is the backdrop to the adventure story of 'Sawyer's Regret' by E. Raymond Tatten.
But a 'tale of adventure' is a superficial first impression. For the book is more than this. Reading it brings back the heady excitement of, for example, stumbling across for the first time a classic such as 'Kidnapped' by Robert Louis Stevenson. The research reveals a close attention and meticulous detail to historical and contemporary accounts of the time and a deep feel for the 'sociology' and way of life and 'world view' of the Indian Society that the hero of the Book, Elias Sawyer, encounters. This is also classic 'coming of age' material and a powerful and moving love story. 'Sawyer's Regret' in short, has something for everyone, covering a wide spectrum of readership.
We are told that the writer was first inspired to write the story the story of ''Sawyer's Regret'' by the curiosity aroused him by a stone marker along Route 62 in Lancaster. His curiosity was piqued by the inscription: ''On this spot in 1705, Thomas Sawyer, his son Elias and John Bigelow from Marlboro were captured''. E. Raymond Tatten tells us: ''I wanted to know about the son too; his age and what it might have been like for a youth to live with an Indian tribe for such a long time. And what about a certain 'Indian Maiden', Owaissa, whose name appeared in the facts I'd discovered, lifting an adventure of danger and uncertainty to more important challenges.''
Young Elias Sawyer is just sixteen when his life his turned upside down forever. He and his father, skilled workers in wood and of the construction of water mills, are surprised and kidnapped along with John Bigelow, also an expert in working with wood, by a marauding party of Indian raiders from the north, from the lands of 'New France' in Canada. They are taken on a very difficult and very long journey taking a month over difficult terrain, encountering as they move, other Indian parties with white hostages, mostly young children. He learns that their captors are 'Abenaki' and pay-rolled by the French. From time to time Tatten pauses to take in and admire the scenery; clearly he has a deep love and regard for the land; and he has an ability to describe it vividly.
''The countryside was ablaze [it is the Autumn Fall period] with crimson and yellow of Fall foliage mixed on a canvas of green. Elias sensed the fullness of the forest, the rolling hills and views sparkling with brilliant color. On stone vistas, clumps of brilliant white birch trees sparkled, contrasting the forest's dark glade...... They [ the giant pines] were majestic, towering high overhead, forming a tangled canopy that shut out direct sunlight. Smaller, plump evergreens snuggled beneath, each with a full dress of green branches, their tops dotted with brown pinecones.....''
But the journey and the adventure has only just begun. Reaching the Saint Lawrence river, they arrive at a large Indian settlement under the leadership of the Chief Pukeewis. Thomas Sawyer and the man John Bigelow have sorely offended the Indians for the stout resistance they had put up and it is determined that Thomas will be burned to death as punishment. This is prevented by the timely intervention of a French Indian and a French Jesuit Priest at the settlement [Quebec]. Thus begins the two year relationship between the hostages and their French captors, for it turns out that they have been kidnapped 'to order'. They have been singled out especially for their skill in working with wood and their specific ability to construct a water mill. In their dealings with the Jesuit Priests and with the Governor of 'New France' himself, an aristocrat named Vaudreuil. They are promised plentiful supplies, board and lodging and payment and ultimate release in return for the construction of a water mill and the training of a team to construct others and maintain them. With occasional visits to and from the French of Quebec, Elias begins his new life among the 'Abenaki', beginning to learn and appreciate their ways and customs and language. He makes new friends and gains a very serious enemy, a young brave called Atonwa. The site of the new Mill is chosen, but construction cannot begin until the end of a particularly bad Winter. It is impossible to start work until better weather and the Spring thaw. In this period, Elias' new friends take him hunting and ice fishing and he learns to appreciate their own spiritual beliefs. Significantly, he falls spectacularly in love with a beautiful 'Indian maiden'. This is Owaissa , high born and well connected and currently being trained for higher things at the Jesuit institution of the 'Petit Seminary de Quebec'. She also appears 'promised' to his great enemy, Atonwa.
With the Spring and better weather, work on the Mill begins in earnest. At length, Thomas and John are permitted to make their way south, to their wives and families. Elias, growing ever closer to his Indian hosts and hopelessly in love with the beautiful Owaissa, must stay, to train others in the construction and maintenance of Mills, thus further incurring greater hatred from his enemy. Owaissa at length returns his love. They can never be allowed to marry in the settlement. He needs to return to Lancaster to see his family, but vows to return in the following Summer to make Owaissa his own. He is escorted on the long journe4y home by his Indian friends and is finally reunited with his family and community, vowing to himself to return north. At the same time he seeks to 'educate' his community about their attitudes regarding the Indians; an attempt doomed to failure in the light of subsequent events:
''The Indians [he informs a packed and naturally sceptical congregation at Church] teach their children there is a Presence that can be found within all of us. When we reach for it, and begin to see ourselves as a part of what surrounds us, fear fully falls away, and we see our neighbours, and friends and family as a part of that as well.''
But time inexorably moves on and he still hasn't made his promised journey north. He begins, slowly, to be entranced by his old surroundings. Once more, the writer takes the opportunity to wax lyrical about the country and countryside as Summer begins to give way to the Fall:
''The sun had slipped below the tree line and twilight lit the countryside in soft pink light. [he walked] shuffling through leaves that covered the trail. Fall was at its' peak, with trees blazing in spectacular reds and crimsons, yellow and orange shades. The bright yellow birch leaves were just starting to fall, and a few maple leaves had begun dropping with each new gust of wind.''.......
In the event, outside events intrude once more and terror returns to the gentle New England countryside. A fully mature Elias is obliged to live up to his responsibilities and the reader is left with a poignant sense of what might have been. ''Sawyer's Regret” is a book on several levels and, in its wide appeal to a general readership, it succeeds in all of them.
*****
“Sawyer's Regret” by E. Raymond Tatten receives 4.5 stars from The Historical Fiction Company